Have you ever Googled yourself? What did you find? What didn’t you find?
This morning Will Richardson wrote about several conversations he’s had with principals and administrations regarding if and how they use Google when hiring new employees:
“When you have some applicants lined up for a teaching vacancy, do you “Google” them? Seems a pretty large majority say that yes, they do take some time to see what a standard Google search might pull up about a potential hire. And some even admit to doing a cursory MySpace search to see what comes up. In most cases, they say that the intent is primarily to find out if there is anything negative that surfaces. Almost all of them admit, however, that finding positive things about their applicants, as in portfolios or collaborations or even social sites, does or could make a positive difference in the process.”
The main point of our training, The Secrets Behind Facebook and Myspace, is to use the megaphone of technology to promote your good qualities so you leave positive footprints for people who want to find out about you.
I feel like our training is the start of what will eventually turn into a standard class for all students, much like home economics. Students Everyone needs to be aware of their digital identity and the importance it will play for our entire lives. It should be a required skill for graduation.
The increasing importance of our digital identity is a game-changer:
- When this generation grows up and tells their kids not to do something, and then with a quick search their kid shows them online pictures of them doing the same thing at the same age…game changer.
- When the first Facebook president is running for office and we all can see what he/she was like as a child through pictures, articles, and videos…game changer.
- When you apply for a job and the first and only place they look is your Google Identity…game changer.
A big concern I hear in our training is the lack of privacy and fear that too much information is being shared with too many people too fast. I empathize with the concern because I think that we are in a shock period right now and those feelings will become a minority over the next few years. The reason is because the amount of information we can know about another person eventually maxes out. Meaning that at some point you know everything there is to know about me and there is nothing more I can share with you. I think our shock period right now is because we are exponentially jumping in a short period of time the amount of personal information that is available from the previous period due to the growth of our digital identities. As this maxes out our shock levels will decrease as it will be a societal norm for anyone to have access to a vast amount of personal information.
But just because the shock fades away doesn’t mean our digital identities are any less important. In fact, our digital identities will become even more important, so we need to start educating people as soon as possible. I think we are going to have a generation of digital Guinea Pigs for us to learn the importance of digital identities.
